Tag Archives: moscow

I need like two weeks down there, seriously. I just want to hang with my mom for a bit. I have a feeling we’re not going to be able to do that for much longer, so I want to hold on to it for as long as I can.

Also, it was super weird not being able to go to my dad’s house in Moscow. It’s no longer his house. That’s going to take some time to get used to.

I left Moscow this morning to head back to Calgary. Didn’t feel like I got enough time here, but I feel guilty just ditching Nate for X number of days to go frolic* in the ‘Scow. But I also feel guilty about leaving my mom all alone down there.

And now I’m feeling guilty because approximately 95% of my blog posts are garbage, including this one.

So at about 3 this morning, Nate drove me to the Calgary airport so that I could fly out to Seattle at 6 (he got me there so early because he has to work on Monday and I don’t want him to get super sleep-deprived staying up all night with me). I hung out in the airport and we flew into Seattle no problem. There was a little bit of a haze in Seattle, but no rain, so I was happy about that.

For once I only had about a 1.5 hour layover there, so I found my gate and just worked on Prime on my laptop. About half an hour before we started boarding, the lady at the gate announced that the Moscow/Pullman airport was basically drowning in smoke, but that the smoke was supposed to burn off by the time we were supposed to get there. That was a little worrying, but I figured that’s what would happen and that we would be able to land.

Nope.

We circled above Moscow/Pullman until we had just enough fuel to fly ALL THE WAY BACK TO SEATTLE because we couldn’t land. Once we’re back at Sea-Tac, the stewardesses informed us to all go to the Alaska Airlines help desk just across from our arrival gate to see about getting rebooked for a flight.

Well, since school starts tomorrow, the flight was full of frantic students who were desperate to get to Moscow or Pullman in time for classes the next day. A lot of them were foreign to the U.S. and were freaking out because the help desk ladies were telling them they might have to fly them to Spokane instead and most of them had no idea where that was and no way of getting transportation to Moscow/Pullman on a Sunday. They were also saying that the Spokane-bound flights for the rest of the day were booked up and they would have to fly in the next day instead.

That would have been my fate as well, but luckily I had texted my mom before we left for Moscow/Pullman and told her we might not be able to land. When we didn’t show up at Moscow/Pullman, she called my dad, who has like extra-super-VIP status with Alaska because of all the flying he does. He managed to call the airline while we were heading back to Seattle and he got me the last seat on a slightly later flight to Spokane.

So I flew to Spokane and my mom drove up to meet me and take me back to Moscow. And here I am.

We left Moscow this morning to head to Bremerton, WA. We were going to stop at a zoo in Tacoma, but we got a bit of a late start so we decided to stop at Snoqualmie Falls instead. Nate had been there before, but this was my first time.

Our hotel in Bremerton was cheap but really nice. We were on the shore of Oyster Bay.

Today was our last full day in Moscow, so my mom and I took Nate down to Lewiston and then ended up playing some mini golf in that little golf course thingy by the Moscow-Pullman airport (it was really nice; I’d recommend going there if you ever want to mini golf or use a driving range). Have some pics:

Lewiston!

Nate and me at the top of the Lewiston hill (I have no idea why this one looks so much more washed out than the first).

First full day in the States! Nate and I walked around Moscow and I showed him a bit of downtown, a bit of campus, and took him to our super exciting mall. I didn’t really take any pictures since I could probably draw a map of the city by memory, but here’s Nate by the fountain.

I missed the “early” bus this morning and was going to walk to campus, but last time I walked in this much smoke my eyes hurt for like three days straight. Since I have to proctor my students taking their exam today, I decided I would kind of prefer to have my eyesight for the morning and just waited for the “late” bus.

But tomorrow is WALKING DAY! I love Fridays for that reason alone. I should go to the fair, too. Anyone want to go to the fair with me?

If I were to rank the places I’ve been in terms of how much time I’ve spent there, it would go as follows:

Moscow, ID

Vancouver, BC

London, ON

SeaTac International Airport

Seriously. 99% of the time I fly, I have to fly through Seattle. 99% of those times, my layover is 3+ hours. Today, it was about 4 ½. It’s cool, though. I like that airport. They’ve got these awesome rocking chairs in the main food court thingy and they face a huge window looking out at all the runways/planes. They also rotate the artwork exhibits that are in the terminal hallways quite often, and they’re always pretty great.

ANYWAY.

I’m headed to Moscow! I’m actually in SeaTac right now; I’ll be home in three hours or so. Our old gang needs to get together and “party” in the basement.

And now I’m going to work on some stats stuff. I slacked off majorly and didn’t start my Stats Weekly posts at the beginning of the year (for various reasons); I’ll try to get it up for the midpoint of the year.

Okay, now I’m 95% sure I won’t be in Moscow for much longer. Like I said before (I think), there’s a person down in AZ who seems imminently more qualified to help with the bag of craptastic crappery into which my life currently has fallen.

So. Because every doctor in Moscow is a member of the Incompetent Physicians of America Association, I may not be in Moscow for much longer. I’ve got some shit going on and my mom found a doctor down in Arizona that seems to be exponentially better than the culmination of all the doctors in Moscow (can you tell I haven’t had any great experiences with doctors in this town?).

So yeah. Just letting anyone who cares know.

OH, and assuming I stay here (it’s probably 50/50 right now, so who knows), perhaps we can all do something over Thanksgiving break. Matt, I know you read this…do you get a few days off for Thanksgiving and are you going anywhere during that week? Maggie (if you read this), are you going anywhere? If you’re all around (and I am too, haha) we should totally get together and have a little Thanksgiving party. Tasty foods, Rock Band, silliness in the basement…all that jazz.

So I heard about the crazy homicide/suicide in Moscow. I didn’t know the young lady, but Dr. Bustamante was my professor for Psych 218 back in fall of 2007. It totally surprised me when I read about it, he didn’t strike me as someone who would do anything like that ever.